Oxfam uses the principle of commitment in the knowledge that a small change in
behavior will lead to larger changes later on.
Social Proof
“I go with the flow.”
This principle tells us that we like to observe other people’s behavior to
judge what’s normal, and then we copy it.
Persuasion architects apply this principle by showing us what other people
are doing on their websites. For example, researchers at Columbia
University set up a website that asked people to listen to, rate and
download songs by unsigned bands. Some people just saw the names of
the songs and bands, while others — the “social influence” group — also
saw how many times the songs had been downloaded by other people.